1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a new system for aiding or navigating a person related to medical care such as a medical doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist, a medical office worker and so on, to make a medical care schedule and a medical care record. The present invention also relates to a computer readable program storage device and a computer data signal embodiment in a carrier wave, which allow a computer to function as the aiding system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in case that a certain patient comes to a hospital or is brought by an ambulance as an outpatient with a cardinal symptom (i.e., a cardinal symptom of sickness or illness) such as a headache, a sicchasia or vomiturition, a tinnitus, a stomachache and so on, the medical doctor performs an observation or examination for the patient. Then, at first the medical doctor makes up a medical care schedule in his or her mind as for a test, a medical service, an arrangement for hospitalization, a medical operation, an administration of medicine etc., after that in accordance with the observation and the diagnosis. Then, for example, the medical doctor may make such a schedule by writing, on a so-called “instruction table” sheet for exclusive use, the medical care schedule or plan for the patient such as the schedule and content of the test and the medication, the schedule and content of the medical operation, the schedule and content of the post-operation treatment or examination and so on. As for a medical care record for the medical care actions performed on the basis of the schedule, recording by using an electric medical record is becoming widespread in place of a conventional medical record of a paper or sheet.
Recently, as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2706645 (Japanese Patent Application Laying Open NO. Hei 9-185651) corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,197 and Japanese Patent No. 2815346 (Japanese Patent Application Laying Open NO. Hei 10-214302) corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,923,018 which have been applied by the present inventor, it is also possible to make such a medical care schedule on a table, in which medical care actions of various types are arranged in first rows for each type of the medical care actions and in second rows orthogonal to the first rows for each date, displayed on a computer display. Namely, it is possible to make such a medical care schedule on a medical care schedule table which is displayed by executing a program called as a “care map” (which is a trade mark registered in Japan, and hereinbelow this kind of medical care schedule table is simply referred to as a “care map” as the occasion demands), by filling each item in the care map in accordance with the diagnosis or observation of the medical doctor. More concretely, the medical care schedule maker or recorder such as a medical care doctor sets medical care items related to the pertinent patient as the items to constitute the ordinate (first row) of the table and also sets an appropriate term assigned to the date constituting the abscissa (second row) of the table in which the medical care actions belonging to the set items will be performed, in accordance with the diagnosis or observation, so that the frames of the care map are constructed. Further, he or she inputs the medical care actions to be performed into each frame of the care map at the date and item corresponding thereto (hereinbelow, each frame of the table is called as a “cell” as the occasion demands). Then, after the scheduled medical care action is performed, a performance or result data remains as a confirmed data in each cell of the care map in place of the schedule data. Namely, in this care map, the schedule data is shown with the performance or result record data.
Especially, according to the above mentioned care map, since the hospital concerned personnel such as the medical doctor, the nurse, the pharmacist etc., who actually performs the medical care schedule share the medical care schedule information, it is possible to make the medical care schedule with little loss and perform the medical care schedule while appropriately adjusting or amending it in cooperation with each other e.g., inputting and changing the data associated with each cell (or each item) in the care map at each of the terminals.
However, according to the above mentioned care map, under the actual scene of the recent sophisticated and complicated medical care, the medical care schedule maker or recorder such as a physician in charge etc., may not be a person, who actually performs each medical action (e.g., an assistant physician, a testing doctor or engineer, a pharmacist, a nurse, a rehabilitation engineer, a meal or cocking person and so on), and the communication between them may be often indirectly established by means of a known ordering system using a computer or the like (which is a system to perform the execution command of the medical action through a computer network). Accordingly, there is a problem that it is difficult for the medical care schedule maker or recorder such as a medical doctor to recognize the condition of performance of each medical care action scheduled on the care map e.g., whether or not the medical care action is on a stage of just schedule or on a stage of standing by, whether or not the corresponding order has been issued, whether or not the medical care action is to be performed urgently or at an early date, whether or not the medical care action is to be performed as the occasion demands, whether or not the medical care action has been already performed in line with the schedule, whether or not any result data such as a test result data or the like exists by the execution, whether or not the medical care action has never been performed against the schedule, whether or not the medical care action has been performed somehow against the schedule, whether or not the medical care action to be continuously performed has been actually performed regularly and so on. Namely, there is a problem that it is difficult to rapidly recognize such various conditions on the table or to make the schedule on the table while watching the information indicative of the various conditions on the same table.
Moreover, these various conditions e.g., whether or not the medical care action is to be performed urgently, whether or not the medical care action has been performed in line with the schedule or the like, certainly change by the lapse of time even if no action has been performed. Thus, the operation of inputting the information indicative of those various conditions (e.g., the operation, done by the schedule maker or recorder, of manually inputting the information indicating how the present condition is) requires a large amount of troublesome labors. In addition, the various types of medical care actions have certain mutual relationships (For example, in order to perform one medical care action, another medical action should be performed in advance of that. Or, since one medical care action is performed, another medical care action should be promptly performed after that.). Thus, the operation of inputting the information indicative of those various conditions becomes more difficult since the various conditions are not simply determined by the lapse of time.
Moreover, for example, in case that an emergent patient due to an traffic accident is received or a medical doctor cannot follow his schedule, the medical care action for a patient related to the medical care schedule to be performed very soon may not be actually performed. Further, in such a case, by changing just the date for one item or by changing just the content of the medical care action such as the kind of the medicine rather slightly, the changes as for other large number of items become inevitable in actual cases, so that this problem is very serious. Especially, in a hospital where a large number of serious or urgent patients are accommodated, if such a job or activity to make the medical care schedule or record cannot be speedily performed, it may lead to a fatal event related to a human life. Thus, the veteran or old-professional doctor etc., should spend his or her time and energy in a large amount for the job or activity to change the medical care schedule itself, resulting in that the valuable medical resource runs short corresponding to that amount.